Letter tray



March 18, 1941., T A, HEARN ETAL 2,235,709

LETTER TRAY Filed June l0, 1938 lo Egolf;

Patented Mar. 18, 1941 y UNITED LETTER TRAY Thomas A. Hearn, Ludlow, Ky., andA Francis F. Braun, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignors to The Globe-Wernicke Company,`Norwood, (lhio, a

corporation o! Ohio Application hinein, 1938, Serial No.'213018` l Claim.

This invention relates to letter trays of the 4type used on' desks inofiices for holding various items of mail. There are various letter trays on the market today in which two or more trays 5 areprovidedyone on top of the other, and it is to this general class of trays to which our invention is directed.

lit is an object of our invention to provide a standard letter tray unit and a standard stacking member so that any desired number of trays may be stacked on top of each other by means of these stacking members.

It is another object of our invention to provide a tray construction in which there is maxil5 mum accessibility to the trays by virtue of the fact that the stacking members are disposed atthe rear of the tray, while the spaces between the trays at the front are free from any obstruction. l

It is another object of our invention to pro- ,vide a tray in which the paperswill be better held against accidental displacement while they will still be readily accessible to the hand.

` To this end it is another object of ourv invention to provide a letter tray having a sloping bottom.

A further object of our invention is the provision of a letter tray assembly which is streamlined in appearance in accordance wtih the modern trend in oflice furniture design, which is simple to manufacture by virtue of the standard construction of the parts, and which is simple to assemble and disassemble, and rrigid when in assembly by virtue of'a novel construction of stacking members.

These and other objects of our invention, which will be pointed out hereinafter, or which will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading the specication, we accomplish by that certain 4()` construction and arrangement of parts of which we shall now describe an exemplary embodiment. Reference is now made to the drawing forming a part-hereof, and in which Figure 1 is a plan view of one of 'the lette 4.5 trays.

Figure 2 is a side elevation of three trays stacked together.

Figure 3 is a partial rear elevation of the same. Figure 4 is a longitudinal cross sectional view taken along the line 4--4 of Figure 1, showing how the stacking member is tted to two superposed trays.

Figure 5 is a perspective view of a stacking member showing how it is connected to the lower of two trays.

(Cl. 20G-73) Briey in the practice of our invention we provide a number of letter trays, indicated generally at I0, and a number of stacking members, indicated generally at I I, by means of which two or more trays may be stacked upon each other. 5

Each tray, according ,to our invention, comprises a back and side walls indicated at l2 and I3 respectively, lformed from a single piece of sheet metal and provided with a stiffening bead I4 along the top edges. The members I2 and 10 I3 are provided at their lower edges with inturned flanges I5 and I6 respectively which provide connecting means for'the bottom of the trays indicated generally at II. The bottom member at y the rear'is attached to the flange I 5 as by spot 1 welding or the like, and slopes upwardly toward the front of the tray where it gradually curves downward as indicated at I8 and is provided with an inturned ange I9 having an offset portion 20. This offset portion 20 rests upon and is fas- 2 tened to the two side -flanges I6, as by spot weld, ing or the like. The curvature I3 preferably commences at a point generally indicated at I8a, which is slightly short of the length of the paper to be used with the tray. For example, in a tray designedY for 8% inch by 11 inch letter paper the point Ia might be 10 inches or 10% inches from the back wall I2 of the tray. It will be clear from Figure 4 that the papers indicated generally at so 2l project outwardly beyond the at portion I1 so that they may easily be gripped with the iingers, and it will also be clear that, by virtue of the sloping construction of the bottom member. the paper will tend to gravitate backwardly u downwardly to the vertical rear wall I2 of the tray so that they will not beso likely to be disof the tray, and .two are provided in the rear 5|)V wall, one at each corner of the tray.

Just below the bead I4 slits 24 are provided in the two side walls substantially in `a vertical line with the members 23. However, we prefer to provide no such slit 24 in the rear wall of the "3 between themembers 22 and 28; At the lower end of the member il we provide on one side of the angie a downwardly extending lip 21, and an outwardly and downwardly turned, curved ange 28 which is adapted to t over the bead I4 while the lip 21 is adapted to extend down` wardly inside the rear wall of the tray. On the other side oi the angle we provide a U-shaped bead 29 terminating in a downwardly turned portion 30'. T'he portion 29 is adapted to seat over and around the bead i4 in the side wall and extend through the slot 24 with the portion 30 extending downwardly on the inside of the Yside wall I3. We prefer to form the stacking' members H to be narrower at the bottom 4than at the top, so as to give to the assembly a streamlined appearance.v Strengthening beads-II may be provided in the angles of the stacking members if desired.

From the foregoing description it will-be clear that several trays may be stacked upon each other by inserting a member l0 through a slot 24 and then tilting the member il until the lip 21, extends down through the inside of the rear wall, and the member 28 rests upon the bead I4 of the rear wall. Another such stacking member is erected on the other corner of the tray, and a second tray may then be stacked upon the iirst by causing the members 26 of the stacking elements to enter the portions 2l of a second tray.

twill also be seen that we have provided a s desk tray construction in which all the parts are standardized. Each trayis exactly like every Y other tray. and each set of stacking members is :lust like every other set of stacking members. It will, of course, be understood that i-t is within the scope of our invention to make all the stacking irons exactly identical, although we prefer to make rights and lefts in order to provide a more symmetrical appearance. 'I'he only change which would be necessary would be to reverse the portions 21 and 24, and the portions 29 and Il at the lower end of the stacking members, and to change the location of one of the slots 24. It will also be seen that the front of the assembly of trays is absolutely clear and not obstructed by any stacking members so that letters may be thrown into a tray from the side as well as from the front, and that letters thrown into a tray will beheld therein by virtue of the slope construction of the bottom members. If desired, for extra rigidity, it is within the scope of our invention to provide stacking elements at all four corners, although in such case, the freedom from obstruction at the front of the tray must be sacf riflced.

Having now fully described our invention, what 25 A letter tray for papers of.-a certain length comprising side walls and a. back wall formed from a single piece of sheet metal, the front of said tray being open, said walls having inturned flanges along the lower edges substantially in a common plane, and a bottom member comprising a. sheet of metal flat over a. major portion of its area, said portion .being of a length short of said paper length and said member being gradually curved downwardly at the front end thereof, said front end being provided with an inturned flange which is secured to the front portion of the flanges of the side walls and the rear edge of said bottom member being secured to the flange of the back wall, whereby said bottom will slope downwardly toward the rear of said tray.

THOMAS A. HEARNL FRANCIS F. BRAUN. 

